This invention relates to a data acquisition system for an aircraft, more particularly but not exclusively a test data acquisition and instrumentation system.
Any aircraft comprises a number of transducers which generate signals indicative of respective parameters, temperatures and pressures at various points, control positions, flying surface positions and so on, which signals are passed to a pilot display system and/or to the flight computer. When a prototype or experimental aircraft is being tested, it has to be fitted with possibly a large number of additional transducers the signals from which are recorded by a tape recorder for analysis following a test flight or ground test mission. Such testing is obviously a very important part of aircraft manufacture, but since the hardware required for carrying it out is not needed for normal operation of the eventual production aircraft, it has hitherto been designed and constructed on a somewhat piecemeal basis. Thus, usually a tape recorder and a central data acquisition or collection unit are purchased and the remainder of the required hardware, i.e. wiring harness, transducers and such, are designed so that they will fit, physically and functionally, a particular aircraft and to suit whatever recorder and acquisition unit are available. These factors have sometimes resulted in difficulties in installing and particularly in commissioning the test instrumentation.